You’re absolutely right that I have a completely different perspective than those of you in the Salinas Valley. And both Gonzales and Gilroy should be proud of what they were able to accomplish this season. Most times, as was probably the case when you played, teams from the MTAL are suprised by the quality of play that they run into in CCS playoffs because they don’t see such a high level of play in the MTAL. It’s sort of a eye-opening experience each year.

For the record, I did play in the CCS playoffs three times: with a title, a second place finish, and a semifinal exit. In fact we beat Gonzales at Golzales in the first round the year we won it, and it certainly wasn’t an easy feat. But despite my teams’ accomplishments in the playoffs, I’m never going to say we were the best team in the tournament (not even the team that won it all). We just had good runs at the right time.

I certainly wasn’t intending to belittle what Gonzales did this year in the tournament, but rather shed some light on the fact that from our perspective up here, winning our league is a tougher feat than winning CCS. Something that I thought Gonzales would agree with given that they did not even win the MTAL yet still won CCS.

Sorry.

]]>By: APThttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/comment-page-1/#comment-763
Tue, 27 Feb 2007 04:24:07 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/#comment-763I don;t think lowney is to blame for BCP slipping to SF at WCAL tournoment and GHS at CCS. He is a good coach, he won coach of the year and led BCP who were underdogs to upset Alisal and Watsonville who were top level natioanlly ranked teams, at last year’s CCS.

Some will say Linares, BCPs best player getting sick and there for not ready to play as an excuse to lose but maintain bragging rights as the top team. Remeber when Watsonville was natioanlly ranked #1 a few years ago? They suffered from forfeiting games, losing great players becuase of not getting grades, they had injures, and they topped bellarmine 2-0 in CCS semis. Before that they tied BCP in preseason, but forfeited becuase of an ineliagble players were used helped them acoplish the result. They kept moving on and improving and were clearly the better team when they meet BCP again at CCS.

Last year when Watsonville was upset, they pointed no fingers and accepted the deafeat without complaining and whining. They blamed themselves despite suffering injuries from semis. There were news paper articles localy about watsonvilles injuries hindering them, and even the mercury news noted that Jerry Marmolejo, Wastonvilles top striker was slowed by a groin injury in the CCS all team. WHS coach Roland Hedgepeth noted that BCP won becuase they were much improved. WHS captian Hugo Flores said on TV “We didn’t do the things that made this team win, but we’re still proud cuz not everyone makes the finals”. I talked to few players from last years WHS team they said the injuries affected them but was no excuse to lose. “Thats the way the balls rolls, we still proud” some of them and their supporters said. They did not complain and showed great class, sportsmanship, and character, something BCP supporter/alumni/parents/students here lack.

Gilroy certainly did not win by luck, winning by two goals is not luck, to me its showing superiority, proving that they are the ones that more than derserve to be crowned champions. The best team is who is best in the end, not who is regarded as best during the most of the season. They have been underrated and ranked lower and many ppl from SJ did not expect GHS to beat BCP beacuase of that. ITs no surprise considering they only lost two games, one of which was an upset which led to their early exit from the homestead Xmas cup which many have been why they did not recive a higher section ranking. Their record is 17-2-5 , impressive considering the difficulty of their schedule, where they beat the two top seeds by two goals at CCS and beat a top ranked Alisal team twice, who beat powerhouse Watsonville twice. They also faced Salinas in league who topped Alisal.

I therefore don;t see any reason why BCP should blame title coach that guided them to the title when they weren’t expected to win it before. Wastonville respects their coach no matter what, thats why hes been there for over 25 year and guided them to many CCS titles, watsonville has always stuck together, watsonville has alwasy noted how their team has stuck togethe like a family, i played for aptos who until the league realinment this year has alwasys been watsonvilles toughtest cross town rival, we know them best besides pajaro valley, many aptos players come from the watsonville community and played for the same club and middle school teams as watsonville players, they seems to care so much about their soccer and stick together like a family never blaming each other. If bellarmine wants to win it they should start by not blaming and respecting their coach who is already proven. A local Gilroy news paper noted that even though past gilroy teams have had more talent, this one stuck togther like family. thinkof it as Real Madrid having more talent and revenue than anyother club team and they lost CL and Spanish league to teams with possibly fewer resouces and talent, they fired their coach, it didn;t help them do any better. The same stituation applies to BCP just at comparing two compeltely different levels.

]]>By: playerhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/comment-page-1/#comment-762
Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:48:52 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/#comment-762The word out there is that Lowney is out as head coach at Bellarmine.
]]>By: kadhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/comment-page-1/#comment-761
Tue, 27 Feb 2007 00:41:53 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/#comment-761Can anyone tell me why the Bellarmine soccer coach did not speak at the conclusion of the WCAL Champtionship game (Bellarmine vs St. Francis)in which Bellarmine lost? Bellarmine’s asst. coach did the speaking. The Bellarmine players worked hard but came up short. They deserved more from their head coach. I can honestly say the St. Francis coach would not have failed his players had SF lost. Being gracious in defeat says a lot more about a team, a school, and a coach.
]]>By: Marchttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/comment-page-1/#comment-760
Mon, 26 Feb 2007 23:52:48 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/#comment-760Defnese1st,

To tell you the truth, the goings on at Bellarmine are of no concern to me. All I know about Bellarmine is that it has been a soccer powerhouse since back when I was attending school at Gonzales High School in 1995.

Your comments which attempt to take away from the achievements of the Gonzales and Gilroy soccer teams are a concern. I don’t know if you ever played in the CCS tournament, but I did. Like I mentioned before, I played 3 years and each of those participations ended in an early 1st round exit. Each of those times, our tiny Salinas Valley school was matched up against more technically sound, better prepared San Jose-area schools.

The level of play in San Jose has been much higher than that of the Salinas Valley. I wouldn’t be surprised if the players that make up the high school teams in San Jose play together year round. This, if you know soccer, is significant because they develop a better functioning team.

Maybe to the people who are familiar with and come from the San Jose-area, the CCS tournament is no big deal, but to us in the Salinas Valley, it’s a very big deal. You can count the number of CCS Championships won by the teams in our league (MTAL) on one hand. Look at it this way, this was the FIRST-EVER CCS Championship in ANY SPORT for our little school. Your comments belittling it are a shame.

There is all this talk about club soccer this and club soccer that. Gonzales doesn’t have many club soccer players, I’d be surprised if even one player plays club soccer. The fact is that Gonzales is a small, farming community, and the parents don’t have $100 or more per month to spare.

Maybe you should come live in the Salinas Valley without the privilege of year round club soccer and a smaller pool of players to choose from. Maybe this would help you see this from a different perspective. Your comments make you sound pompous and conceited.

I don’t see one excuse for the bellarmine loss on this board. posters are simply discussing the current situation of the BCP coach. this is a soccer forum and people have the right to do that. gilroy won, congrats but don’t go fishing for negativity when it’s not there.

]]>By: davehttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/comment-page-1/#comment-758
Mon, 26 Feb 2007 01:07:03 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/#comment-758bellarmine parents,allumni,bellarmine students should just face the truth Gilroy is the better soccer (technical,tactical,condtion) team for 2007.please stop making excuses.ATP is correct”Gilroy had been underranked or unranked throughout most of the soccer season(by the mercury news)and now they are number 1.”As far as the ccs Player of the year it should be the Co-captins of the CCS Champions 2007 Jose Velasquez or Humberto Pineda.
]]>By: davehttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/comment-page-1/#comment-744
Mon, 26 Feb 2007 01:05:07 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/#comment-744bellarmine parents,allumni,bellarmine students should just face the truth Gilroy is the better soccer (technical,tactical,condtion) team for 2007.please stop making excuses.ATP is correct”Gilroy had been underranked or unranked throughout most of the soccer season(by the mercury news)and now they are number 1″.”As far as the ccs Player of the year it should be the Co-captins of the CCS Champions 2007 Jose Velasquez or Humberto Pineda.
]]>By: APThttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/comment-page-1/#comment-757
Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:48:12 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/#comment-757I think the fact that underseeded 2 public schools were crowned champions is great and absolutely senational! Im surprised by the lackluster performance from WCAL schools whom recruit players from top level clubs and were given very high seeds and more playoff spots than any other league. Speaking as former Aptos Player.

This years CCS soccer has shown a decrease in quality making it very had to predict who is going to win CCS. Last year similar to past years, there were 3 nationaly ranked teams who were given the top seeds in D1 and it was predicatable one of them was going to come out as champion. Anyone strong was vulnerable to an upset.

I have certainly noticed a decrease of quality locally in the SCCAL league where I once played. I had expected Aptos and Harbor to compete for the league title and be serous CCS title contenders. Aptos’s leading scorer and captain was returing as well as some other top level players who had tranfered from and played for Watsonville when they were nationally ranked number 1, one of the transfers being a member of a regional ODP team. None of them were eligable. On Harbors side was super skilled star Jose Gonzales returning from playing for the U-18 national team, he made an apparent impact after Harbor started the season losing every single game the did not lose a game when he returned, until they forfited after he was declared ineliagble for not finishing neccesary paper work required when playing for a national team during the season. Also with Watsonville gone to the MBL, The best players and best team are now gone. Watsonvile coach Roland Hedgpeth noted that the lower quality of the MBL would lower the level of his team, indeed that proved true when they lost to BCP after they had beaten them in preseason.

Gonzales(the school) has had their share leasons learned: being upset by York School, a college prep private school of 200 students with many of whom don’t play any club soccer. Also falling short of of winning a league title when clearly capable of doing so. You can use UCSB NCAA run to the title as a analogy to Gonzales, despite comparing two completely different levels of play. Both teams depended on PKs to advance. Both teams had tough league seasons and faced upsets, but got their act together in time for the year ending championship which crowns the best of the best champions. Both teams were underseeded:Gonazles got the last seed and barely qualified for CCS and UCSB barely made it to NCAA coming in unseeded. Their GK should be named to the all CCS team becuase his saves during PK shootouts helped his team advance, UCSBs goalie was named to the all-NCAA team and played a vital role as well. The fact that they tied very tight first two games of the tournoment may have help prepared them. They faced very strong opponents such as Pajaro Valley. PKs while not the most beautiful way of seing teams adavnce are fair becuase they show many qualites of a better team. It can show how good their goalkeeper is, how good the teams’ touch on the ball is, and how focused the team remains after being tired from overtimes. 2-0-2 is not a pretty way to win it, but Gonzales deserves it for staying focused and hanging on till the end.

On the other hand in D-1 while I did not want to, but expected Bellarmine to win after beating Watsonville, Gilroy did come out but not from a complete surprise. They had beaten Homestead Christmas Cup Champions Alisal twice, who intern beat a very good Watsonville team twice who beat Bellarmine in preseason. They were upset by Pajaro Valley and another team early in the season and tied some games they should have won but they still hung on for the TCAL championship. Their first CCS win was tight, however they seem to have showed their dominance in the later rounds. Clearly they showed they were superior to BCP by using headers to beat them, A play that was known as BCPs greatest strength as BCP used headers to stun Watsonville and Alisal last year. Gilroy have been underranked or unranked thoughout the season and now they are number 1, I think they are worthly of a national ranking as well, they only lost two games.

Congrats to both newly crowned CCS champions!

]]>By: BackupKeeperhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/comment-page-1/#comment-756
Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:49:25 +0000http://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2007/02/23/gilroy-gonzales-surprise-champions/#comment-756What I am saying is that club soccer is driven by what has corrupted and destroyed sports in general: money. When I was young there were many multi-sports athletes and sports were still a game, and games were played for the joy of it. No more.

Now, children play a single sport year round with paid coaches and trainers who earn their living traing these kids and telling them that they will get them a college scholarship at a D1 school. Parents pay $100 (and that’s cheap) a month, and some pay more than $500 per month, for 3 – 5 days a week of practice and games with a one or two month break per year in hopes that their son/daughter can get that scholarship. I have seen parents who retired in their 40’s with an 8 figure buy-out continue to push their kid and invest thousands of dollars per year so that their child can go to a mediocre school on a sports scholarship and turn down an offer to an ivy league school.

To me, this is an abuse. Parents are not facilitating the desires of their children; they are driving them to fulfill their own fantasies at the expense of their kids who often are only trying to please or obey their parents. There are several well-known young men whose “careers” were ended in their teens due to over-training. Many more who have superior ability and truly love the game (but, as teenagers should, have other interests as well) simply burned out and said that they were through with soccer after high school just because they were tired of being told that soccer was their job or some similar ignorant comment. I have seen young men turned into victims by their parents when they reached their peak and simply could not compete at a top level but were still being told by their unscrupulous club coaches that they could get a college scholarship at a D2 school, the comment clearly being motivated in large part by a desire to keep those monthly dollars coming in.

Here is the reality of college scholarships. These kids are competing against the entire world (look at UCSB, for example), and every year these schools might have 4 scholarships to offer. D3 schools can offer no money, and many D1 schools that have superior academics like some of the ivy league schools, offer no money by school policy. If you meet the criteria of the individual coach, you might get recruited. This typically happens no later than the summer before senior year, so those seniors who are still hoping are almost always deluding themselves. If you are lucky enough to get recruited, you might get an offer. The reality is, however, that even a school like Bellarmine is lucky to have 2 to 4 players a year that are recruted, and those players are unlikely to be recruited at a school of their choice. As an example, last year 2 Bellarmine players were recruited at UC Irvine. If there were not the issue of an athletic scholarship, would these young men have chosen that institution, or might they have chosen Yale or Harvard? Others have been shafted by unscrupulous college coaches who make verbal promises only to renege with the excuse that no written offer was issued. Only a very few of these young men will ever earn a dime playing soccer, (translate that to 1, Ameche Igwe), so isn’t their education more important than their sports?

The sad reality is that there is much more academic money avaialble than athletic scholarships because soccer doesn’t bring in the money. The reality is that almost every academic institution will offer a full need-based award to every accepted student. The reality is that if the player gets injured or is replaced by a new phenom, the money stops. What then? Girls, by the way, have much more choice because of Title 9, and it may be a blessing for them, but even with girls the academic money is far more than athletic.

So, I go back to my original theme: youth soccer has been corrupted by money, and parents have taken the bait. Somebody should ask these club coaches what percentage of their players were ever given an athletic scholarship, and then, what ever happened to those who did’nt get the money. To my knowledge, that question, if ever asked, has certainly never been answered.
Finally, think back to your youth, when sports were still a game and not your job. Which would you choose as your memory in your 40’s: the joy of youth or the grueling work of today’s youth sports and the inevitable burnout that happens when the time has come for it to be over because you have peaked. I hit that wall at 13 when it became obvious that I could not hit the curve, but I love baseball to this day because I played because I wanted to play for the true joy of the game. I honestly believe that today’s youth soccer players will not have those same fond memories, and that is a tragedy.